Notes from Academic Support Conference – April 7, 2011
Submitted by Shailah Stewart, Commonwealth Corporation
Notes are based upon feedback during the full group report-out in the late morning session, and the end
of day debrief -Address the challenges and effective practices for the “three pillars” of the academic support programs:
1) the quality of the academic component, 2) enrichment of college and career preparation, and 3) the
recruitment, retention and relay aspect of working with targeted youth
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Quality of Academics
o
Challenges–
 For some in-school youth programs, we are not seeing sufficient skill growth as
a result of the interventions, with youth possibly just getting to the 220 score
on MCAS, but not reaching toward proficiency
 For out-of-school youth - important population to be served is ELL youth who
are low-skilled, and there is a need for foundation-building in language arts;
programs may not be prepared for the very basic literacy level of the youth
 For older youth who have left high school, esp. if they were members of earlier
high stakes classes (classes of ’03 – ’08), they are hard to engage in MCAS
support; they’ve “moved on” to adult lives
 The quality of the curricula itself varies and may not be engaging enough to be
effective
 The short term nature of the programs makes it hard to make much progress in
the academic skill area
 Scheduling of the MCAS retests – It is challenging to design support programs
that relate well to the retest schedule
 It is a challenge to draw the right balance between straight classroom
instruction and contextualized learning with effective projects
 In some areas, the partnership with school districts is not strong enough
o
Effective practices from the field  Boston: started an 8 week biology prep after-school program in the weeks
leading up to the February test - Devoted each week to one standard,
addressed both the academic and the college and career preparation elements,
enriched the program with guest speakers from relevant science professions
 Randolph: Designed an April teacher externship in which a high school
engineering teacher was paired up with a technical expert at Milton Hospital,
and then used the experience to improve curricula in classroom - got very good
results with students in the alternative program
 Taunton: Made sure that the academic support tutors met regularly with the
project leaders that led the three main projects: Entrepreneurship, carpentry
and horticulture
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Enriched Opportunity for College and Career Readiness
o
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Brockton: Emphasized differentiated instruction, and organized teachers to
focus on one subject and especially the growth patterns of students – careful
attention to outcomes
General: Programs that make sure to get students out of the classroom
environment to learn academics subjects in a context where they are relevant
Challenges
 Lack of follow-up after summer programs end
 Challenge of developing methods of creating good individual pathway plans
when program staff are dealing with multiple schools and multiple staff
 The problem of matching students with interests, where there are not enough
work experiences in the fields youth have identified
 Getting employer buy-in to work with students with challenges
 How to measure progress of participants if they are not at a work site and there
is no work-based learning plan being used
 FAFSA – some programs are having difficulty getting parents and students to go
through the process
Effective Practices
 College readiness: smart use of Accuplacer test to help students know about
the process of placement at community colleges and the issue of developmental
courses, as they progress toward their competency determination
 Career exploration: Improved program design in worksites to make sure to
capitalize on wealth of information about college and career readiness in the
industry in which the youth is working - Example: programs that incorporate
career exploration activities in health care settings by tapping staff for
presentations, so that the youth learn about the medical field from the adult
practitioners
Recruitment, Retention and Relay (Hand-off)
o
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Challenges
 Challenge in recruitment of getting hold of lists of youth who have not passed
the MCAS, and thus are eligible for services, from the folks that have them
 Addressing the problem of enrolling youth who then learn that they have to
attend summer school and so can not be part of academic support program -esp. when students do not learn till the end of the school year that that is the
case
Effective practices
 Offering students high school credit for their summer experience
 Design methods for real parent engagement, which can really help with
retention
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Make sure to find the “Go-To” person at the school district/high school for
successful partnering and information sharing
Debriefing about the day: What Worked/What could be done to improve - Plus/Delta:
Pluses:
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Problem-solving nature of the small group discussions
Open dialogue
Opportunity to hear from other grantees
The mix of representatives – from agencies, school districts, and different funding streams
The break-out time for the new grantees
Keith’s overview and description of state context – College and Career Readiness
The “Safe Place” notion – so folks could acknowledge weaknesses/problems in their programs
Deltas:
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Folks would like a contact list of attendees
Desire for a break-out session by fund code
Folks want name tags with fund codes so we can see who our fellow grantees are